Gunmen attack Fort Hood, Texas

[Polarbear1605]

Agree with everything you say...but I can still complain...right?
First and foremost they need to be talking to one another and it appears they are not. In this case, the judge initiated the issue with the “forced shaving” ultimatum setting off a long delay for the appeal process. Second, if the commanding officer does not have the authority to “force shave” than neither does the military judge. There should have been an immediate after conversation (before would have been better) initiated by the commander/CA with the judge...Subj: WTF!, Over. And OH!..BTW…let me get ahead of the appeal court…your fired, judge.

If I were the commander/CA, I would be very upset about the appeal delay. This multi-murder happened, what, three years ago? Shaving, IMHO, is clearly a command issue getting back to “good order and discipline” command authority. If, I were commander/CA, and I wanted to avoid the appeal delay, I would have either told the judge …to not worry about the beard or I would appear at the brig with both sets of lawyers (defense and prosecution) order this guy to shave and when he refused add a charge. The add the charge part is in case he decided to shave before he appeared at the court martial. Not shaving is not going to help this guy before a sitting court of his peers.
The next reason these two need to be talking is the whole plea bargaining thing that may or may not happen. I cannot recall a plea bargaining paragraph in the UCMJ or the MCM…in my mind that clearly makes plea bargaining a command responsibility.

Another issue is that any finding by a court martial is essentially a recommendation because the commander/CA can accept, reject or modify.

Let’s talk about another case where the CA didn’t do their command job. Yep! Haditha…you knew I had to go there. One of the defendants in the Haditha case was a LT, intell type. The Lt was attached from 2MARDIV (Camp Lejuene) to the 1MARDIV Bn while both were in Iraq. Consequently, the court martial was held by 1MARDIV CA at Camp Pendleton. The LT was basically charge with obstruction of justice because he ordered his E-5 intell chief to destroy a set of photos of the Iraqi dead. He gave this order in accordance with standing orders that no pics of Iraqi dead were authorized and subsequently, found not guilty.

At one point in the pretrial proceedings, the Lt was actually discharged from the Maine Corps by his battalion commander back in Camp Lejeune. The prosecutor immediately added a charge to the Lt’s court martial for illegally discharging himself from the Marines. At the court martial, the defense attorney called the Lt’s 2MARDIV battalion commander and asked him why he discharged the LT. Answer: Because I am required by law to discharge him at the end of his contract. I can, however, place him on legal hold at the request of the CA. The prosecutor never requested or sent a legal hold letter to 2MARDIV. The prosecutor was charging the LT for his mistake. If I were the CA, I would have taken a considerable amount of both the prosecutor’s and judge’s time immediately after the charges were written up.

Commanders are turning their responsibilities over to the lawyers turning many of these show trials into clown schools.